Orangeville Hydro helps restore power in New York

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Orangeville Hydro will play a part in restoring power to New York residents in the wake of super-storm Sandy.
Foreman Paul Staveley and Dave Brett, a journeyman lineman, left for New York on Saturday (Nov. 3). After a 16-hour drive, they arrived in Long Island to assist in efforts to restore electricity in the region.
Orangeville Hydro operations manager Bob Noble said before Staveley and Brett are able to begin rebuilding pole lines, large amounts of debris and sand must be removed from the various damaged areas of the electrical grid.
“There is a tremendous amount of clean up going on first. There is debris everywhere,” Noble said. “They’re helping, and waiting, for some of that to get removed.”
The Orangeville Hydro employees, as well as a double bucket truck, joined about 36 other workers from neighbouring municipalities who answered a call for assistance from the United States government. They will likely stay in New York for about two week.
“They’re staying in an army barracks that was closed a couple of years ago,” Noble said, adding accommodations are limited to sleeping bags and cots.
He wasn’t sure if the group had access to electricity in their downtime.
“I think they do, they’re about an hour away and commuting in every morning,” Noble said.
Long Island, home to the New York City boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn has one of the highest population densities in the United States. With more than 7.5 million people, it has the highest population of any island in the United States and ranks 17th in the world.
“It’s going to be a big job, no doubt,” Noble said.
Also stalling efforts to restore power is co-ordinating the availability of hydro poles, transformers and wire.
“You can imagine with a restoration project like this, there are a lot of other logistics that have to go into getting them started,” Noble said.
On Monday (Nov. 5), Noble was able to check in with Staveley and Brett regarding the restoration effort.
“They said there are probably about 1,000 trucks and 2,000 men there,” Noble said. “They said it’s hard to describe the amount of co-ordination that is going on to get everything up and going.”
Orangeville Hydro will be reimbursed for labour and resources used while in New York. The voyage south of the border is also a training opportunity for the two employees, according to Noble.
“I think it’s a marvellous opportunity to see something different,” he said. “And obviously they feel good about going down to help.”